Other Voices

• Lethal treatment - The death of a patient puts chiropractic on trial - Sept. 21, 1998 - MacLeans Magazine (This article was not archived)
• Mrs. Mathiason speaks outRisks should be known

  The chief coroner of Saskatchewan convened an inquest to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of my daughter Laurie and to consider what can be done to avoid similar deaths in the future. In Saskatchewan, a coroner's jury is specifically instructed not to assess fault or blame. Therefore the statement in your report that the inquest did not blame the chiropractor is misleading. The same sentence also understates the testimony of Dr. Robert Macauley. He testified there was a 99% likelihood that chiropractic neck manipulation was the cause of my daughter's death.

  The attending radiologist also testified to his opinion that the vertebral artery rupture was caused by over-rotation of Laurie's neck.

  The coroner's jury determined the cause of my daughter's death was "traumatic rupture of the left vertebral artery." Traumatic is defined as injury caused by violence from an outside source. The jury made recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths, and all were directed at the chiropractic profession.

  The public needs to know more about chiropractic. If its practitioners are truly concerned about the welfare of their clients, they will accept the responsibility to make the public aware of the risks.

  Sharon J. Mathiason
  Saskatoon, Sask.

What about the inquest?

• John Wiens - Manitoba chiropractor and web host "It is notable that the jury listed the cause of death as a tear in the vertebral artery and not a cervical manipulation. Furthermore, the jury recognized the fact that the reason that chiropractic has very little data on the effectiveness of the procedure as well as its risk factors is that governments have not assisted the chiropractic profession with funds for the appropriate research and clearly the jury has put the governments to task for this."
• Dr. Katz Speaks out against statements made by John Wiens

How chiropractic media sees it

• Chiropractic Acquitted in Canada - Patient's Death after Manipulation Not Attributed to DC This was the first time in the 103-year history of chiropractic in Canada that a patient had died after a chiropractic adjustment. At this point, the obvious question was asked: Did the chiropractic adjustment cause the young woman's death? This was obviously not true then, and it certainly isn't true today. Why do these people have to lie so much?

• Lana Dale Lewis Inquest